Playlist
by ATightropeToTheWords
Summary: They fight until they cry, they swear until they're hoarse, they scream because they can't take it anymore, they hate because it's all they know...and they love, because love is all they have left. Chapter Three: Far Away by Nickelback.
1. Dare You To Move

**A/N: Salutations! This is a series of Leo/Reyna songfics, 'cause I just adore Leyna and I know a lot of songs that work for it. This first one is a songfic to Dare You To Move by Switchfoot. Hope you like!  
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**Disclaimer: I don't own Heroes of Olympus. It belongs to the _amazing_ author known as Rick Riordan. I also don't belong the lyrics to Dare You To Move. They belong to the _amazing_ band known as Switchfoot.  
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/*\*/*\

_Welcome to the planet, welcome to existence, everyone's here, everyone's here..._

Leo wishes he had a time machine. There were so many things he would love to change. He would go back several years and have never let his mother go back into that workshop that would go up in flames minutes later. He would go back a few weeks and stop himself from looking like a fool in front of Reyna when they first met ("I'm...um...Le-you are really pretty.").

He would go back ten minutes and stop himself from telling Reyna everything. Everything that had been weighing on his mind like a ton of boulders, just waiting for their chance to break him. Everything that had been keeping him awake at night, and, when he finally did sleep, made him dream about only one person. Everything that had made these past weeks the best weeks of his life.

And she had just looked at him with those intelligent brown eyes of hers, blinked three times exactly (he had counted), and said, "Okay."

"Okay." Not "I feel the same." Not "I had no idea, but that's the most amazing thing I've ever heard." Not even "Wow."

"Okay."

Well, Leo certainly didn't feel okay right now. He feels like Reyna had rode her pegasus right over him. But that's what this love business is like in the real world, isn't it? Nothing like in the Disney movies.

Leo rests his chin on his knees with a heavy sigh. He gazes out unseeingly at the sunset as the yellow ball fades and disappears behind the trees. He wonders if maybe he should leave his perch in the tree, but he can't bring himself to. He feels safe up here. Or at least, safe from the possibility of running into Reyn-

Leo snaps the rubber band on his wrist as hard as he can, and it delivers a hard, stinging smack to his wrist. He grimaces at the pain, but it distracts him from far greater pain.

He leans back against the trunk of his tree, resting his head on a branch. Brittle leaves tickle his bare skin but he can't be bothered to care. He doesn't feel in the mood to care about anything. He doesn't care that he has been missing for eight and a half hours and that somebody is probably looking for him. He doesn't care that his stomach growls loudly every ten seconds because he has missed both lunch and dinner. He doesn't care about anything. Nothing but her. But she doesn't care about him, does she?

Leo squeezes his eyes shut and is almost asleep when he hears a voice call out his name. He groans inwardly and hopes that the foliage from the tree is enough to hide him from view. But it must not be, because a moment later he hears a rustling in the branches, a twig snap, and then Reyna's head appears startlingly close to him.

"There you are, Valdez," Reyna says by way of greeting. "I was pretty sure that I would find you here."

He wants to tell her that he wishes she hadn't found him at all, but he can't say that, so he just grunts. She pulls herself up further so she's beside him on the thick branch that would make an Ares (or Mars) kid look like a toothpick. Leo makes no comment, instead just crossing his arms across his chest and looking away like a pouting little kid. He can feel her eyes boring into him and, not for the first time, wishes that he could know what she's thinking in that infuriatingly secretive mind of hers.

"Why are you up here?" Reyna asks finally. He glances over at her with an 'are-you-kidding-me?' look on his face. She just shrugs.

"I needed to get away," Leo answers after a long while during which Reyna looks at him and he looks at his hands.

"I can understand that," Reyna says knowingly. Leo quickly snaps the rubber band on his wrist to stop the flood of words that he feels coming on. When he stays silent, Reyna continues. "Everyday is like a whirlwind. You know?" He nods. "And everybody is always counting on me to be the leader, and have a plan no matter what happens, and never show any emotion, let alone fear." She studies him intensely. "Do you see what I'm getting at here?"

_Everybody's watching you now, everybody waits for you now, what happens next? What happens next?_

He shrugs moodily. "I guess so. But don't you ever need to have somebody to just talk to without having to pretend?"

"For a long time, that person for me was Jason," Reyna admits. Leo's expression darkens.

"Is that why you rejected me earlier?" he asks glumly, before sense can stop him in his tracks. "Because of Jason?"

Reyna looks taken aback, but she nods slowly. "Partly, I suppose."

"He's not as great as everybody makes him out to be, you know," Leo says, desperation tinging his voice and mannerisms as he reaches out and slips his hands into hers. She's too stunned to react and pull away. Or maybe she just doesn't want to pull away.

"Leo," Reyna murmurs pleadingly. "You have to understand something."

"What?" he demands. "That I'm not Jason, and I never will be? I understand that, Reyna. Loud and clear."

_Welcome to the fallout, welcome to resistance, the tension is here, tension is here..._

"It's not that," she assures him immediately. "It's that...well, surely you've noticed that we're about to be at war, Leo. I cannot afford to become close to somebody right before a war. Because if you died..." she trails off, but he has heard enough to understand.

"So...it's not because I'm not good enough?" Leo asks. "It's that you're afraid of becoming close to me and then losing me?" When she nods, his heart soars and he gives her hands a squeeze. "Reyna, I'm not going to die. Trust me, I've got plans for my life. Ain't no giants going to stop me."

She starts to protest that he doesn't know that for sure, but the corners of her mouth slowly twitch upwards in spite of herself.

"You'll get yourself killed just because of your cockiness," she declares reprovingly.

"My cockiness can be a good thing, though, no?" He winks at her and she rolls her eyes but leans against him a bit. They sit in comfortable silence with no noise to disrupt the moment save the occasional chirp of a cricket. And then Reyna speaks, softly.

"This is so wrong, Leo."

"Wrong?" he repeats, horrified. "What could possibly be wrong about this?"

"Wrong. I told you before: I can't do this. And what about Jason?" she adds, and then immediately wishes that she hadn't when she sees the look on his face.

"Jason," Leo pronounced carefully, "can go screw himself. Or better yet, get Piper to do it for him."

"Leo!" Reyna glares at him. Leo meets her gaze evenly and then says what is possibly the single most incredible thing she has ever heard come out of anybody's mouth.

"I dare you to move. I dare you to go back to how we were: friends who didn't know how far they could go before it all fell apart. I dare you to pretend that today never happened. I know that for one, I can't. Because I love you."

_I dare you to move, I dare you to move, I dare you to lift yourself up off the floor, I dare you to move, I dare you to move, like today never happened, today never happened before..._

She stares at him for a minute. For once in her life, she is at a complete loss for words. She opens her mouth to reply, though she doesn't know what she plans on saying, but she is interrupted by a snapping sound. Both Leo and Reyna look down and see Piper standing below them with her hands on her hips, tapping her foot impatiently.

"Reyna, you left to find Leo an hour ago," she calls up. "What exactly have you two been doing? Actually, forget I asked that question. I really don't want to know."

Reyna rolls her eyes and is about to climb down when she realizes she never replied to his declaration of love. She meets his anxious eyes with a slight smile.

"Yeah. Same here, I guess."

And with that, she drops down from the tree and lands on her feet. Leo joins her after a few moments of dwelling on her answer, except he lands on his knees and groans loudly. Reyna and Piper grab his shoulders and hoist him to his feet. He smiles sheepishly.

"Come on, love birds," Piper tells them. She then walks away, leaving them looking after her with raised eyebrows.

"You have any idea what she meant by that?" Leo asks casually. Reyna gives a shake of her head even as she slips her hand into his and leads him back towards Camp Jupiter.

As they walk, she notices the rubber band on his wrist, along with a few painful-looking red marks. She blinks and gestures at them, asking Leo what they are. He shrugs sheepishly and replies, "Nothing..."

She just rolls her eyes and leans her head on his shoulder. "Okay."

_I dare you to move, like today never happened, today never happened, today never happened, today never happened before..._

/*\*/*\

**A/N: I know it was short, and it strayed a bit from the song, but I enjoyed writing it. I hope you liked it, and please PM me if you have any suggestions for a song. DO NOT leave a song suggestion in a review. Thank you!  
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**- Hyper **


	2. Angel

**A/N: So...hi. This one is a songfic to Angel by Sarah McLachlan. I know it's short and strays from the song a bit, but if you like fluffy Leyna, then I think you'll like this chapter. **

* * *

><p>Reyna was not exactly sure what had broken her. Maybe it was the battle overall. Maybe it was the screams that had echoed around her endlessly. Maybe it was the sight of vultures circling her sister's dead body.<p>

She was vaguely aware of herself screaming Hylla's name, her feet carrying her towards the woman while swords clanged around her body in a dangerous dance. She didn't care. Even a thousand swords embedded in her chest wouldn't have stopped her from being at her sister's side.

Finally, after what felt like eons, reached Hylla. She threw herself down on her knees, shouting at the vultures to go away. They shrieked at her, but obeyed.

With trembling hands, Reyna fumbled with Hylla's metal helmet, pulling it off of her head. She saw with horror that Hylla's eyes were still open, gazing up at the younger girl with a glazed over look. Reyna felt the bile rise in her mouth and she wanted to double over and retch, but she forced herself not to. Tears formed in her eyes, spilling over as she inspected the rest of Hylla's body. Her breath caught.

Three arrows decorated feathers as black as death were sticking out of the Amazon's chest. One near her neck, one close to her left armpit, and one directly where her heart was. Reyna choked on a sob.

"H-Hylla," she whispered, emotion constricting her throat like two hands like ice trying to strangle her. "Oh...oh, sister..."

She felt something build up in her chest. Something white hot and furious. Tears flowed down the praetor's face as she forced herself to her feet and gave a wail of agony, loss, and anger. She screamed until her throat was hoarse and raw. Romans turned to stare at her with looks of confusion and then infuriating pity.

"Reyna?" a familiar voice called. A boy appeared at her side an instant later. His face was a mask of concern, completely oblivious to the battle around them. Reyna almost didn't recognize him for a minute.

"Leo?" she whispered. Leo gave a nod and then his eyes wandered over to Hylla. They widened and looked back at Reyna immediately.

"Oh, Reyna..." he murmured, reaching out to touch her face. She let him. Her body trembled so hard she was getting dizzy. "Reyna...wake up, love..."

"What?" Reyna looked at him.

"Wake up, Rey," he murmured. "Wake up..."

/*\*/*\

Reyna sat up in bed with a shriek reminiscent of the one she had unleashed three and a half years ago at the battle. Her chest heaved up and down and her breath came out raggedly. She looked around, attempting to get her bearings. Her face screwed up in confusion. She didn't recognize the place she was in. White walls that had faded to the same shade of gray as the curtains that hung over a tiny wall in the corner, a small table at her side, and sheets over her body that were practically threadbare.

And then it all flooded back to her. Leaving Camp Jupiter. Working at a restaurant as a busgirl until she could afford to pay for community college in California. Staying at a rundown old hotel until she could afford an apartment. Telling herself that she could make herself a good life. Telling herself she had everything she could possibly need. She wanted to believe it so much that she almost began to believe it.

_The storm keeps on twisting..Keep building the lies, that you make up for all that you lack..._

The door to her bedroom opened and a woman with a beaky nose and hair so white it looked unnatural poked her head in.

"Miss," she said, "are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine," Reyna said quickly. "Just a nightmare."

The woman gave a "hmmph" and then continued, "You've got a visitor."

"A visitor? Who?" Reyna's mind immediately jumped to Jason, or Hazel, or possibly Percy.

"I didn't ask his name, miss," the woman snorted, and then lowered her voice confidentially. "But he was handsome."

"Thank you, Donna," Reyna said hurriedly. Donna took the hint, rolled her eyes, and walked away, not bothering to shut the door behind her. She called over her shoulder,

"I'll send him up!"

Reyna groaned and buried her face in her pillow. She didn't want to see anybody familiar. Familiar people only reminded her of pain and loss. _Hylla_...

"Reyna?"

Reyna froze. She could swear she felt her heart stop beating. That voice. That voice she had just heard in her dream.

Leo Valdez.

"Rey? Are you, um, dressed?"

Reyna was half-tempted to say no just to make him go away, but the other half of her would have regretted that instantly. So she instead cleared her throat, straightened her pajama shirt and called, "Yes."

The door opened further and Leo walked in, almost bumping his head on the low ceiling. Reyna studied him closely. His eyes were the same dark brown, his hair the same curly mess it had been when he was 16, but there was something distinctly different in his face. Something more...mature.

Reyna almost burst out laughing. Leo? Mature? Please.

"Well. Hi."

"Hey," she said awkwardly. She looked down at her bedsheets. Anywhere but his face.

They sat in silence for a while, not meeting each other's eyes and not speaking until they began speaking at the same time,

"Why did you come?"

"Why did you leave?"

Reyna bit her lip and looked away again, but Leo kept his eyes trained on her. She wished she could stop feeling. She wished she could be numb and weightless. Anything to escape those eyes.

_Let me be empty, oh, and weightless, and maybe I'll find some peace tonight..._

"Why did you leave, Reyna?" he repeated quietly. She refused to reply, instead countering with,

"Why did you come, Leo?"

"I came to ask you why you left," he shot back. She rolled her eyes and pulled her knees up to her chest, hugging herself and shrugging. She rested her chin on her knees and just stared at him.

"I mean, I know after the thing with Hylla you were probably extremely sad, but that's no reason to leave us!" Leo continued. Reyna cringed and glared at him.

"It was every reason to leave!" she snapped. "Everything reminded me of her! It was too much. You can understand that, right?" Reyna realized that she was pleading with him, begging him mentally to understand and not be angry. His face softened a bit.

_I need some distraction, oh, beautiful release. Memories seep from my veins..._

"Yeah, I understand," he replied, looking down at the hem of his t-shirt and fiddling with it. "I guess it was just...surprising. You always seemed so...strong."

"I'm not strong," she told him. "I'm anything but strong, I can assure you that."

"But you are." Leo looked at her with earnest eyes. "If you weren't strong, you would've-"

"I would've what?" Reyna asked rather harshly. "Run away from everything that reminded me of her?" She laughed bitterly.

"You would've tried to join her," he corrected gently. She blinked. And then Reyna threw herself at him in a fierce and completely uncharacteristic hug. Leo blinked for a moment before slowly relaxing and hugging her back.

"I'm sorry I left," she whispered into his chest. "I just couldn't take it. Everybody kept looking at me with all that _pity_..."

"It's alright, Rey," he murmured, kissing the top of her head. "I understand. When my mom died...I had to get away. But after I left the foster parents in the neighborhood that my mom and I lived in, I never stayed anywhere very long. Never had a real home. Never knew anybody for longer than a month before I went to the Wilderness School and met Jason and Piper, and then went to Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter and...yeah." He chuckled softly.

"But I had so much," Reyna argued. "I had friends that were like family, I had a home, I have _everything_...and I left it all."

"Shh...It's alright, Rey," Leo whispered. "Don't torture yourself."

"Everybody probably hates me," she continued. "Jason and Percy and Hazel and Frank and Annabeth and Gwen and Dakota...and you..."

Leo pulled back and looked at her evenly. "I. Do. Not. Hate. You. And neither does anybody else. Nobody even _blames_ you."

Reyna squirmed out of his grip and fell back onto her bed. She curled up again, hugging herself, and Leo, with a sigh, sat beside her. He put an arm over her shoulders and held her. Then,

"You've never gotten over it, have you?" he asked. "Losing her, I mean."

"Have you ever gotten over losing your mom, Leo?" Reyna returned. He winced.

"No," he admitted. "Never. But it helps to know that I'll see her again someday. Until then, I just try to be as good as I can so I can get into the good place I know that she went. Whether it's Heaven, or some place in the underworld."

She laid her head on his shoulder. "You're just so...good, Leo. It's-"

"Endearing?" Leo guessed.

"Infuriating," she corrected. He made a face and stuck his tongue out at her playfully. She laughed. He pulled her closer.

"We're gonna be alright, Reyna," he told her gently. "We're going to be alright."

She curled up closer to him. "Will we?"

"You'll be alright, Reyna, because I'm not leaving you, and I'm not letting you leave me again, either."

They sat like that for a long time in silence. Reyna didn't know what the future would hold. Leo didn't know if what he had been hoping for for so long would finally happen. But they were in the arms of their angel. So for the time being...everything would be alright.

_In the arms of the angel, fly away from here, from this dark, cold hotel room, and the endlessness that you fear...You are pulled from the wreckage, of your silent reverie...you're in the arms of the angel...may you find some comfort here..._

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><p><strong>AN: Hope you liked it!**

**- Hyper**


	3. Far Away

**A/N: Hi :) So, this is a songfic to Far Away by Nickelback. It was a request by Miss Asteria Malfoy, who has been incredibly patient these past few weeks as I took my sweet time writing this chapter. xD So a round of applause for her.**

**But anyway, hope you all enjoy! **

* * *

><p>Leo swallowed and adjusted his tie. It was bright red, like the red stripe on a candy cane, and he honestly felt rather ridiculous wearing it, but that Aphrodite girl, Cristina, hadn't given him time to argue. The moment he had told the Aphrodite and Venus girls he needed help asking out a girl, they had attacked him like a pack of wolves. Never again would Leo doubt just how fast combined forces of girls could give a guy a makeover.<p>

So now he was standing here, on her doorstep, looking like he was about to host a gameshow, what with his crisp white dress shirt and tie. Everything was in place. The flowers were clutched tightly in his slightly clammy hands like they were his life preserver. He was looking directly at her door. He could see the patterns in the grains of wood.

Now his right hand was, shakily, moving upwards. Now his hand was making a fist. And now his hand was banging on the door like his life depended on it.

The door swung open so suddenly that Leo nearly punched Reyna in the face. She jumped back to duck away from his fist as he brought it down, expecting to have a door to knock on but instead finding only the air in front of Reyna's head.

"I'm sorry!" he cried. His eyes were very wide but Reyna just rolled hers, straightened up, and crossed her arms across her chest. She studied him from head to toe and as her eyes moved, her left eyebrow slowly arched. By the time she had finished looking him over, that eyebrow looked like the St. Louis Arch.

"What are you doing here, Valdez? And why are you dressed like _that_?"

"I-um-" Leo struggled to remember the speech that the Venus and Aphrodite boys had put together for him and made him memorize while the girls gave him a makeover, but nothing came to mind. It had all gone blank the moment he had set eyes on Reyna's face.

She blinked at him and he could feel blood roaring in his ears. He knew it was now or never. Now was the time to ask her. He only wished that he wasn't so scared. All the times before when he had talked to a girl like Reyna, they had laughed in his face or simply rejected him. Mistakes, mistakes.

But something felt different this time. Something told him that this was different from his puppy-love crushed on other girls. Maybe she even felt the same way, and she just didn't want to make the first move.

"So Percy decided that we all need some time to de-stress what with all this war stuff going on, so he planned a dance sort of thing for tonight. And I was sort of kind of maybe wondering if you'd go with me, because I don't want to show up alone because that just looks pathetic and I figured Jason would go with Piper so I didn't know if you would be alone or not and so I decided to ask you. So. Wanna go?" He said this so fast that it seemed to take Reyna a moment to realize what he had said.

"Dance?" She looked confused.

"Where you stand there and listen to music and awkwardly sway around," Leo clarified breathlessly. This was it. His one chance. He took another breath, as if he had any left, and waited for her to speak.

She rolled her eyes at his explanation. "I see. Well, as fun as awkwardly swaying around sounds...I really am not interested," Reyna told him.

And just like that, he felt the world come to an abrupt end.

"Oh. Oh, I-Oh. Okay. Sorry. To um, be a bother. See you later, then. Or not." Leo took of running as fast as he could, his feet stumbling at first until he broke into a good, steady sprint. His eyes stung but he kept going, and didn't stop until he felt that he had run far enough that she wouldn't be able to follow him. But then again, she probably wasn't following him at all. Why would she? He was just the silly son of Hephaestus who always fell in love with the girl completely out of his league.

Leo slumped against a tree and cradled his head in his hands. He had ruined everything, and humiliated himself. How could he have let himself believe that she would say yes?

He curled up into a ball, winding his arms around his knees, and allowed himself to wallow in his misery until he finally drifted off into a blissfully dreamless sleep.

/*\*/*\

"Wow, Percy," Annabeth admired, "you did a pretty good job making this place look less like a camp preparing for war and more like a party."

"Why, thank you," Percy replied cheerfully. He reached up and pressed on the tape that was holding a balloon in place.

"Where did you even get the decorations?" Annabeth wondered.

"There's this great little shop down in New Rome that I found. See, I was just wandering around, looking for a place to buy decorations, and I somehow wound up in a little alley. It was kind of creepy, you know like in those movies where the serial killer jumps the guy wandering around in an alley?" Annabeth stared at him, but he went on as if he didn't notice. "But luckily, before I got jumped by a serial killer, I saw this store that was at the end of the alley so I walked inside. It looked kind of weird - there were a few shelves with bottles that had skull-and-crossbones on them - but then when I told the kind, toothless man behind the counter that I was looking for decorations for a party, he led me into a back room and gave me a few crates of balloons and streamers!" Percy finished. Annabeth's eyebrows had disappeared into her hairline.

"Umm...okay...how much did he have you pay?" she asked.

"Only about five denarii! Oh, and also he said something like 'Mos vos exigo mihi vestri animus?' so I said 'Sure' and he gave me the stuff." Percy smiled.

"That's...nice." Annabeth looked like she was struggling not to freak out.

"Yep. Hey, have you seen Leo around? He said he was going to ask Reyna to come with him tonight, but I haven't seen him since this morning."

"No, I haven't seen him," Annabeth replied. Percy shrugged.

"I'm sure he'll turn up sooner or later, then."

The couple smiled at each other adoringly.

/*\*/*\

As soon as she had watched Leo start running, Reyna had felt a strange, sinking feeling in her stomach. It felt almost like...guilt. But why would she feel guilty? She had only told Leo the truth. And if the truth hurt him, it still was better than a lie. Lying was not the Roman way.

Slightly cheered up by this thought, she continued on with her day, not sparing another moment to feel guilty about Leo until she saw Percy walking towards her.

"Yes?" she addressed him when he stopped in front of her.

"Have you seen Leo? Nobody has seen him since this morning and I'm starting to get worried," came Percy's rushed answer. He looked at her with an eyebrow arched almost suspiciously. She felt heat flood her face and tried to maintain her dignity as she said,

"I saw him briefly this morning, but not at all since then."

"Oh, hades," Percy muttered. "Well, thanks anyway." He turned to leave when a thought occurred to him and he looked back at her. "Did you say yes?"

"Hmm?"

"Leo asked you to go with him tonight. Did you say yes?"

"I..." The guilty feeling had returned, and with it came a blossom of anger. What, was she supposed to humor Valdez every time he wanted something that he simply couldn't have? She wasn't his care-taker. So, with feeling, she said, "No, I did not say yes."

"Oh, hades," Percy repeated. He turned and hurried away. Reyna could hear him calling Leo's name as he walked. She worried at her bottom lip for a moment before sighing and walking in the direction she had seen Leo run earlier.

/*\*/*\

Leo was awakened by the sound of his name being called. But not being called in a concerned, where-are-you-Leo-I'm-worried-sick kind of tone, like his mother had used every time Leo had gotten lost in the grocery store. This tone sounded irritated, almost as if his being missing was a great hindrance. He wondered why the person was looking for them if they only planned on being annoyed they had found him.

In what he felt to be a great act of defiance, Leo curled up more and hid. However, his searched still seemed to be getting closer and closer, as their voice grew louder and louder. So loud, in fact, that Leo could tell how familiar it was. Annabeth? Piper? Hazel? No, definitely not them; they actually _would_ be worried if he was missing. So who was it, then?

With a start, he realized: Reyna.

This only made him try to hide more. Unfortunately, his elbow snapped a branch rather loudly as he moved around, and suddenly a head appeared above him.

"There you are," Reyna sighed. Leo wished very much, in that instant, that anybody else had found him - anybody except for Reyna.

"Meh," he muttered and ducked his head in an attempt to hide from her. However, she just grabbed his arm (none-too-gently, he might add) and hauled him into a sitting position. He rubbed his arm where her nails had dug into the skin and glared at her vehemently.

"Why did you go?" Reyna asked.

"Why did you follow?" he shot back.

"Because Percy was worried about you," she declared.

"Why couldn't he have found me?" Leo grumbled under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Nothing."

Reyna sighed and rubbed her temples. He stared at the ground. The two of them stayed that way, in hostile silence, until finally Reyna said,

"Why did you run?"

"Why do you think I did, Reyna?" Leo felt very angry, now. "I was humiliated and basically felt like a piece of trash. Never good enough, am I, Reyna? Never as good as Jason."

Reyna looked like she had been punched between the eyes. "Leo, that's not-"

"Don't even try to deny it," he barked. His fists shook. "You know it's true. If it had been Jason asking you, you wouldn't have hesitated to say yes."

"That's a lie," Reyna insisted. "Stop comparing yourself to Jason-"

"I'll stop comparing myself to Jason the day I start being treated as good as him!" Leo shouted.

"You know what, Valdez?" Reyna growled. "Why did I bother looking for you? I should have let you alone in the forest. Maybe if I had, I would have gotten lucky and you never would have come back."

"There's no maybe about it. I wouldn't have come back, and I'm not coming back now."

And with that, Reyna gave a little snarl, turned on her heel, and marched away, hissing obscenities under her breath. Leo watched her go with eyes as hard as steel.

Or at least, eyes as hard as steel until she was gone and Leo was alone.

He once again drew his legs up to his chest and buried his face in them.

Now he had really ruined everything. She had walked away again. So far away.

How could she not know? How could she not see all of the signs he had tried to had to show her?

He kept trying. Kept trying to show her that he cared, that he wanted her, that he...loved her. He loved her, the prideful, brave, amazing praetor. He had loved her all along. Ever since that day he had climbed off the Argo II and fallen, and she had helped him up with a chuckle and a small smile. Right that moment, he had decided that he wanted to see that smile again, and again, and again.

He loved her.

She was all he could seem to think of these days, stuck in his head, stuck in his dreams. And he didn't mind. He felt happy when he thought about her. He just wished she would stop walking away. He was so terrified of what would happen if she walked away and never came back. He would stop living, he guessed. Stop breathing. He would die, if she left him forever.

And she just had.

No. She couldn't leave him. She was his everything. So Leo jolted to his feet and started running.

/*\*/*\

By the time Reyna had reached Camp Jupiter again, the sun was almost finished setting and Percy's party had begun. She could hear cheers and laughter coming from the mess hall, where Percy had decorated, so naturally her footsteps led her away from there and towards her house.

She spaced out for a few minutes until she became aware that she was lying on her bed, finally. She sighed and curled against her pillow. She wanted to stay here forever, never have to face Leo's friends and the consequences of what she had done.

She had never meant for that fight to happen. She had never meant to make him want to never come back, or to humiliate him, and certainly never to make him feel like he wasn't good enough. He _was_ good enough. Reyna just wished she had realized that before.

She chewed on her poor bottom lip again. What was she supposed to do? Leo was gone, probably forever, and she would likely never see the boy again. For some strange reason, this made her feel extremely sad. To never watched him start to catch on fire when he got extremely excited, or hear him tell another bad joke and then burst out laughing at his own hilarity. The idea of never seeing him again hurt her.

And she had no idea why.

/*\*/*\

Reyna nearly jumped out of her skin when she heard a loud, hard knock on the door of her house.

_That must be Leo's friends_, she thought miserably. They were probably furious. They would probably _stay_ furious forever, too. Leo's undeniable loyalty to his friends made him quite valued by almost everybody who met him, and inspired the same sort of loyalty in most of them who knew him well, too.

She dragged her feet as she went to the door and hesitantly turned the knob.

"Reyna," Leo breathed. He watched her eyes grow wide and felt a sense of dreading horror in his stomach, realizing that she was probably still livid with him. He started to back away when she began talking almost as fast as he had earlier.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to make you angry and you're important to everybody here, and you're one of the most important soldiers we're going to have when fighting Gaea so we need you, Leo."

"And here I thought I was the only person in the world who could talk that fast without taking a breath." Leo looked amused. Reyna felt relief flood her and she cracked a smile that was uncharacteristically wide. "And I, too, am sorry for yelling at you."

"Apology accepted," she said hurriedly.

"So...we're good now?"

"Yes," she confirmed. His smile grew.

"Great! So...I just have one question." Leo rocked back and forth on the balls of his feet. Reyna looked at him expectantly and he reached out and slipped his hands into hers. "May I have this dance?"

"Leo, I don't like-"

"Please," he said quietly. "Please, Reyna. I would go through the deepest layer of _hell_ just to hold your hand. Please."

Reyna reluctantly nodded and Leo took a step closer. The two, to borrow Leo's phrasing, awkwardly swayed for a few minutes. Reyna would never admit it, but it was actually rather _pleasant_.

"I'm not giving up, you know." Leo's voice whispered, surprising her.

"On what?" she asked.

"On you. I'm not giving up. I will give anything to make you like me. I'd give anything to make us work. But I won't give up."

"Leo-"

"I love you. I've loved you all along. I need you. We've been too far away, for far too long."

She opened and closed her mouth for a few minutes, unsure of what to say. He saved her from having to reply by gently kissing her forehead and then, with a slight smile, walking away.

_He loves me_, was all she thought- all that she _could_ think. _He actually loves me_.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: HADES YEAH HE DOES! *cough* Ahem. I said nothing.**

**Oh, by the way, the Latin Percy mentioned that the dude that gave him the decorations said translates to "will you sell me your soul?" So...Percy's soul, apprently, now belongs to a creepy toothless dude.**

**I wonder how Annabeth will react to that.**

**- Hyper**


End file.
